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Back in February, IESB visited the set
of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL along with a handful of other sites
in Vancouver.
{sidebar id=1}The film is a remake of the 1951
classic of the same name, also backed by the same studio 20th
Century Fox and stars Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.
Directed by Scott Derrickson, the film
is a contemporary reinvention of the 1951 science fiction classic, in
which renowned scientist Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) finds
herself face to face with an alien called Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), who
travels across the universe to warn of an impending global
crisis.
When forces beyond Helens control treat the
extraterrestrial as a hostile and deny his request to address the
worlds leaders, she and her estranged stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith)
quickly discover the deadly ramifications of Klaatus claim that he
is a friend to the Earth.
Now Helen must find a way to
convince the entity who was sent to destroy us that mankind is worth
saving but it may be too late.
The process has begun.
Add
into the mix Mad Men's Jon Hamm as Dr. Granier and you've got a
winner! I am literally upset with myself. I am a HUGE fan of Mad Men,
but this set visit took lace before I knew what it was, alas, when we
were on set with Hamm and had a chance to talk with him I was unaware
of the magnitude of his future stardom. I am still saddened by this
but the light at the end of the tunnel is the opportunity to
interview him at the press day for DTESS next week. I know, I know,
but most Mad Men fans are as obsessive so I am not alone here.
Back to the film.
We were treated to watching a scene
with all three leads involved.
Reeves was in blue hospital scrubs and
laying down inside a decontamination container of some kind in a Army
hospital or research facility. Connelly's Dr. Benson and Hamm's Dr.
Granier enter the room. Benson observes Klaatu closely and says,
"It's dreaming!"
On cue, Klaatu kicks at his
restraints, Granier tells Benson, "It recognizes you, speak to
it..."
Benson leans into Klaatu and says, "My name
is Helen Benson. You have nothing to fear from us."
Klaatu repeats each word slowly,
"Fear...From...Us!"
And cut!
After that, our group was taken to the
middle of Central Park well, not the real Central Park obviously, but a
fantastic replication of it in the soundstage with artificial grass
and a painted backdrop of police cars and headlights looking towards
us. We were joined by director
Scott Derrickson, producer Erwin Stoff and stars Keanu Reeves,
Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.
The questions began,
Q: Why did you think right now would be
a good time to bring this movie back?
Scott Derrickson: Well, I am a big fan
of the original. I had the chance to meet Robert Wise before he
passed away at a film festival when I was still a film student. I
talked to him about this film and The Haunting. The Day the Earth
Stood Still and The Haunting are my two favorite films of his. In the
case of The Day the Earth Stood Still, I felt it was pretty
self-explanatory. It was one of the first films that brought
intelligence and legitimacy to science fiction. It came out at a time
when sci-fi was less respected and less intelligent. The other thing
is that it was a film of its time period and reflected on the events
of the time. It was such a fantastic statement on the global
situation. Looking at it just as a film fan, the whole notion of Gort
and Klaatu coming out of the spaceship in spacesuits was something
that appealed to me. I loved how it was really an alien presence yet
it was on our world. You had these three things that belonged to each
other and not the rest of the world. Klaatu, and the ship he comes
in, and Gort, are so unreal to this world. And they are so tightly
bound to each other. When I think about that film, the trinity of the
ship, and Klaatu, and Gort always comes to my mind. Lastly, I like
the interplay of it being both a drama and a thriller. It has thrills
to it, yet it also has some vary serious character work.
Erwin Stoff: One of the things that is
so beloved about it, aside from the innovative visuals, is that it
wasn't fear mongering in its themes and conceptions. Most, or rather
all, of the science fiction movies of that time existed to make us
afraid of something. They wanted to make us afraid of all the places
science was exploring at the time. They all existed as warnings. This
was really the only movie that challenged mankind to be the best
version of itself. That is thematically unique for this movie, as
well as the cinematic innovations you see in the film.
Keanu Reeves: I think what you guys are
talking about is what made this film a classic of its time. It was
classic, yet it attempted to transcend that. And that's where I came
onto it in terms of wanting to take that classic and remake it for
our times. We all have the same ambitions and hopes. That is why I
was attracted to it.
Jennifer Connelly: I don't have
anything nearly as heady to say about the whole thing. I just thought
it was a great idea to do it. I love the original film. I think in
terms of performances, Patricia Neal was so fabulous. I loved seeing
this science fiction film that everyone was so committed to. Everyone
took it very seriously, and it was really effective as a drama. I
thought it was a beautifully made film. At the same time, it is
really fun. It has all of these different elements going on. And I
love how Scott and Irwin have contemporized it. I love how it became
relevant to us today. I found that very interesting and intriguing.
Jon Hamm: I basically second what Scott
was talking about in terms of looking at that first film. Science
Fiction is very much a niche discipline. It managed to bring that
much more to a mass audience. And it demonstrated, in my opinion,
science fiction as an important niche. It enables the artist to be
subversive in a way that they aren't really able to be if they are
just laying it into a normal story. By couching it into aliens coming
to our world, you can tell stories that aren't as approachable. You
can certainly take that into account with the fifties. We had the red
scare, the war, and all of the societal problems we where going
through then. We couldn't just come out and say that America is this
sole super power. That maybe isn't the best way. There is a different
way we can go about doing this, and that is by couching it in the
science fiction aspect. It wasn't us having this perspective, it was
the aliens. And that made it more palatable for everybody. Our
version gets to that as well. It is a little bit easier to be
critical, or less politically correct, when you couch it in that
genre as well.
Q: Who's idea was it to make this film?
Scott Derrickson: I don't think it was
the idea of anybody sitting here. It was a Fox property. I think they
struggled for years to find a way to make this work.
Erwin Stoff: The antidote of this is:
In making this version of it, the energy behind it came solely from
Tom Roth. He was the person that really felt a responsibility to it.
He really felt that he had to try and remake this. And he took it on
as a great personal interest. And that preceded all of us working on
it.
Scott Derrickson: On that note, one of
the things that was very pleasing for me as a director to observe
firsthand is his respect for the story and his respect for the film.
It is unusually that someone would be so concerned about the overall
production of it. He understands that this comes with a certain
"treading on sacred ground." This is a 20th Century Fox
classic. For me, as a filmmaker, it has been great to have someone at
the top of the food chain that has that much respect for the film
that we are making.
Q: How difficult has it been to make
this film fresh?
Scott Derrickson: It has been
difficult. There were a lot of conversations about what we wouldn't
do. We had to take a lot of the familiar science fiction staples and
a lot of the technological ideas and remove them. We couldn't do
certain things, so we had to ask ourselves, "What would we do
instead?" I do think we came up with some really fresh and
innovative ideas. The film doesn't feel like it belongs. I think if
we do this the way - we are doing it - it will feel connected to the
original. But it is not going to feel very connected to the films
that were inspired by the original. Because it is definitely a
retelling of that story. But in terms of the science fiction itself,
there are a lot of changes.
Erwin Stoff: The movie will one hundred
percent be recognizable in terms of the original film. But I think it
has been reimagined for today.
Q: We were told that the film would be
green in color as well as scope. That this film has a real ecological
statement about the environment. Can you talk about the challenges of
bringing that sort of theme to it?
Erwin Stoff: The truth is that hasn't
really affected our lives. I was called into a meeting when we had
just started preproduction. The company has a mandate to be a green
company by 2012. Whether it happened thematically, or it just
happened to be timing, there were a number of things production wise
that we were asked to do on a day to day basis. It really hasn't
affected our lives. There were people that were aware of it around
us. They would tell us to use different kinds of generators, or to
use different kinds of lights. As far as the movie goes, it hasn't
really affected it.
Q: Do you know what kind of rating this
will have?
Erwin Stoff: NC-17.
Scott Derrickson: NC-17? Yeah. We have
a very strange Klaatu/Helen thing going on in this movie, boy. You
will be shocked. To be honest, the subject hasn't really come up
about this script. I would say that it is PG-13. The real sexual
tension between Helen and Klaatu isn't in this version. We are saving
that for the sequel. In all honesty, the subject hasn't ever come up.
But you can tell that it will be PG-13 just by reading the script.
Q: Does Klaatu get to say his three
famous words? And will we be hearing him speak in his native language
at all?
Keanu Reeves: Yes-ish. Yeah. The
context is a little inverted, but yes. That was actually something
that wasn't in the script, and I said, "You've got to have
that."
Scott Derrickson: I actually don't
think that was there in the draft of the script when Keanu came on.
Keanu was the one that said, "You've got to have that in there."
And we agreed. You do have to have that in there. It's the line.
Yeah.
Q: Did you study the original film at
all?
Keanu Reeves: Yeah. I watched it a
couple of times. In the original, Klaatu is the nice guy that carried
a big stick. I am not such a nice guy. Well, I am a nice guy. But I
am more sinister.
Scott Derrickson: He is more complex.
Which I like.
Keanu Reeves: Klaatu had this wonderful
sort of ease about him. He had this quality to him. You believed his
naturalistic bemusement. And also his frustrations. Look at that
scene where everyone is around the saucer. And they are interviewing
everybody. He says, "What do you think? Aren't you afraid?"
And the guy goes off and his eyes cloud over. It's another example of
the film being subversive. The media only wants fear, and he wants
this rational answer about that.
Q: Do you feel any responsibility to
honoring these great roles? The original contains some of the best
performances in a science fiction film.
Jennifer Connelly: Oh, absolutely. She
did such marvelous work. I really loved what Patricia Neal did. I
don't want to sound bad, but I am a little off the hook. My character
has been reconfigured so much. In terms of my vocation and what I do,
I have a very different job in this version of it. To me, she feels
quite different from Patricia Neal's character. It is really a
departure. But at the same time, I aspire not to disappoint people. I
have much respect for what she did.
Q: The original film was a Christ
allegory. To what degree is that apparent in this new film?
Scott Derrickson: Well, it is built
into the narrative so inexplicably. To the degree that it is in the
original, it is in ours. It probably isn't as direct or as obvious.
There are some metaphors in the original that we don't have in this
one. Of course, Keanu has done that before.
Keanu Reeves: You could call it
Christian. But I am not Christ. I am not a carpenter.
Scott Derrickson: It is in there in the
same narrative fashion as it was in the original. Which is one of the
appealing things about it. You can look at it in the lines of these
other films that have that Christ-myth narrative. It is a strong
storytelling technique.
Q: Can you talk about filming with John
Cleese?
Scott Derrickson: It was fantastic. We
shot with him last week. We wrapped with him on Friday. He was really
fantastic. It was quite a thing to have such an amazing guy come to
the set. Everybody loved him. People were sad when he left. He is so
funny, and so full of life. The character that he plays is quite
serious. I think he liked that he was fiercely intelligent. I think
he liked that opportunity to give it straight. To show what he could
do as an actor.
Erwin Stoff: It was a difficult role to
cast. We struggled with that for months.
Scott Derrickson: He was the first
person that we offered it too. We just couldn't figure out who else
could do it.
Erwin Stoff: It was genuinely the most
difficult role to cast. But who would you rather have make the
argument for mankind than John Cleese?
Q: Jennifer, what was it like working
with Jaden Smith.
Jennifer Connelly: I loved it. I think
that was a really difficult part. Our little story within the story
is about a mother and son that are in conflict. They have a little
bit of turbulence in their relationship. And it has come to a crisis
point. Something has to shift. Something has to move. We have a lot
of scenes that are filled with tension, and they resolve a difficult
thing. You want to hope that they will work it out. And that there
will be a transition. It is a difficult balance to hit. To have a kid
that can create that. To have a kid that isn't getting along with his
mom, and he throws the occasional fit, but to also like this kid. And
to have trust in him. Jaden is so charming. And so interesting. And
so beautiful. You really want to root for him, and you really want to
like him. He has that beautiful quality to him. He is a huge asset.
You just love him. And he is fun. He comes to the set, and he is a
real kid. Which I love.
Q: Jon, can you tell us about your
character?
Jon Hamm: Sure. I play Michael. It used
to be Michel. My character was originally French. I assemble the team
that tries to figure out this issue that has descended upon the
earth. As it stands, there seems to be some sort of back-story
between Helen and I. Which plays out a little bit throughout the
film. For the most part, I am reacting to the things that happen in
the film. And I am trying to make sense out of them. I am standing in
place of the audience. I am reacting to a lot of this for them. It
has been interesting. I haven't spent much time on set so far. I have
mostly been on airplanes, going back and forth. The experience so far
has been pretty amazing. I love the people I get to work with. Jaden
included. I can second what Jen said about Jaden. The kid is truly
astonishing for a nine year old. It was great to work with all of
these people.
Q: Scott, how did you go about choosing
this film?
Scott Derrickson: I had something very
simple in mind for what I wanted to follow-up The Exorcism of Emily
Rose with. I wanted to do something that wasn't in neither the fully
commercial realm or fully the independent realm. I didn't want to go
the moneymaking commercial route. Or this personal artistic route. I
wanted to make something that people might perceive as commercial,
but would also have this creative and artistic merit to it. That is
what I tried to put together. Everything I have worked on since has
been that. This film really held true to that. It does seem like a
commercial film, and people will want to see it. But, when I read the
script, I saw that the general message was about some pretty
important things. I don't think there is any greater argument for
remaking the original than the fact that the original was such a
product of its time. We are in a different time. Retelling this story
and updating it for this time period is really a worthy venture. The
combination of both the meaning of it, the aesthetic and cinematic
possibilities of it, were so rich. At the same time, we have a big
movie here that people are going to go see. It has a certain arc, and
it is satisfying. It was not a hard choice to do it.
Q: Do you look at other recent remakes
that have failed, like The Invasion, and try to learn from their
mistakes?
Scott Derrickson: I couldn't take any
lessons from that movie because I didn't see it.
Erwin Stoff: I didn't see The Invasion
either. But one of the things you want to be sure of, and this is
true of any movie, is that you are not simply building a house. You
have to have a strong foundation. This rests on a foundation that is
solid and has a reason for existing. Those movies that are built on
weak ground, they don't come out well. The lesson, period, is to know
why you are making a movie. On a difficult day, there is something to
go back to. You can always go back to the reason that got you to do
it in the first place. And that is the reason that always gets you
out of a difficult day.
Scott Derrickson: It is interesting
that you bring up Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I didn't see the
new Invasion. But one of the things I remember saying is that a
fairly good target for doing this remake was Philip Kaufman's remake
of Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1979. I hadn't seen the
original until after I saw the remake, which I saw at the drive-in.
It had a huge impact on me. It was a very strange movie for the time
it came out. I really thought that the Kaufman film was a great
update. It is an original film in terms of taking the same story and
turning it towards its time. I had that updating in mind as a
comparison for this film.
Q: Jennifer, we heard you giving input
on the script in the other room, when you were shooting your scene.
Is that something you do a lot?
Jennifer Connelly: Well, usually just
when it pertains to me trying to understand what I am doing. My goal
is to always convince myself, so that I can have a leg up on being
hopefully convincing. In that instance today, there are things that
are fully articulated in the script. It was an issue of time lapse. I
didn't know what they had planned between that scene and the next.
Sometimes things change. I just wanted to check and see what we would
be cutting to. I wanted to know what I would be walking into in the
next scene. I think we are all pretty collaborative. I do get
obsessive when I start working. And I can't stop thinking about it. I
can't stop reading the script. I do often come up with thoughts.
Sometimes they are horrible. Some of them are hopefully constructive.
I try to look at everything from my character's point of view.
Sometimes I will read it a different way than Scott. Scott has been
really marvelous in entertaining those thoughts.
Erwin Stoff: In addendum to that, one
of the things that have made this a real fun and less stressful
experience than usual is the collaboration. The stress of taking on a
big movie is that sometimes when you begin filming, the script isn't
done. It is completely counterintuitive. It seems like the more the
wheel spins on you, the more flux the script is in, and more is being
written on the fly. For a number of reasons: a) a great job was done
on the script and b) Because of the impending writer's strike, we
were dealing with an excellent deadline. We had an excellent,
finished, locked, done script. For a movie of this size, it is
completely counterintuitive. But again, for a movie of this size,
that is a very unusual thing. Since the script was done, it freed up
everyone, and allowed them to ask a lot of questions. They were able
to ask more questions because they were working under the framework
of a structure that was on a full plate.
Q: How much have you relied on current
technology in the film?
Scott Derrickson: I did want to avoid
making a movie about technology. I think that science fiction,
certainly for the last number of decades, has been focused on that.
It doesn't all have to be hi-tech. We didn't want to take our current
technology and carry it to the furthest lengths of our imagination.
We went in the direction that we should take technology seriously,
and biologically, and ecologically. We had to think of it in more
realistic terms, yet apply it to a more advanced civilization. We
moved beyond hard wear. I think that spawned a lot of interesting
concepts in the film. That is where this film, as a science fiction
film, has its most uniqueness. We are saying something those other
films might not have said.
The Day the Earth Stood Still opens in
theaters nationwide December 12!
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